VividSimon Simply Perfect

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

utgard14 Young couple struggle to make their marriage work. He's a dreamer (aren't they always) and she tricked him into marriage in the first place (ugh). This movie offered nothing that I haven't seen before. The characters whine a lot and it got on my nerves. Then there's the speeches. So many I lost count. The cast looks great on paper but mostly disappoints. John Garfield is one big sad sack of gullible self-pity. Anne Shirley, an actress I absolutely adore, can do little to redeem her character. She starts out likable enough but once her wretched sister gets in her ear, she becomes a manipulative brat. At least she's pretty to look at. On the plus side, there's Claude Rains and he's always great to watch. Maybe I'm being too hard on it. The story and characters are sincere enough. I've seen many of these "plight of the young married couple" movies from the time, many from years before this film. But the staginess and dated ideas make it all seem pretty tired.

bkoganbing This version of Saturday's Children is the third film version of a popular Maxwell Anderson play that ran for 326 performances on Broadway during the 1927-28 season. It's a story of young love with sad to say a most miscast John Garfield.Of course Garfield might not have thought so since back on stage the role he plays as the young calf-eyed Rube Goldberg inventor was originated by none other than fellow Warner Brothers tough guy Humphrey Bogart. Hard to believe, but Bogey on stage played those kind of roles until The Petrified Forest changed his image. He and Ruth Gordon starred in the stage version.But image is everything and Garfield's similar image of a tough guy was set in the mind of the movie-going public then. Garfield insisted on doing this film and Jack Warner gave in. But when it flopped at the box office and it did, Warner was ready with the 'I told you so'. A silent version was done with Grant Withers and Corinne Griffith in 1928 and Warner Brothers later did the story again in 1935 with a more suitable Ross Alexander in the lead opposite Gloria Stuart.I suppose it was the thing back then for young marrieds to live with their parents. This film has Garfield and Anne Shirley living with her parents, Claude Rains and Elizabeth Risdon, along with other married sister Lee Patrick and her husband Roscoe Karns. No wonder these two want a little privacy.Rains brings Shirley to work in the office where he is a clerk and there she meets Garfield whom she falls for. Garfield is like George Bailey, a guy with an itch to do great things and sees an opportunity in the Phillipines for adventurous type work. But now he's got a wife who doesn't quite share that disposition.The best performance in the film belongs to Claude Rains. He almost makes quite the sacrifice to keep our young folk together.Even with a John Garfield that you can't quite get over, Saturday's Children is a nice film about people in love. That's a formula that always sells.

MartinHafer This obviously must have been a play first, as the film is very static and spends most of the time confined to small sets. I really wish the writers had done something to try to open the film up a bit--giving it some more energy and giving it life. Instead, you feel you are watching a play that was filmed--especially when it comes to dialog, as the actors seem to be, at times, making speeches to an audience. Now the acting is okay (though a bit too earnest if you ask me) and the general idea is okay, but just not super-compelling. You see, a young couple is married and face a huge battle against debts and struggle to get by---again and again and again. Halfway into the film, I felt like I'd had enough. Yes, they were young and in love but the day to day pressures put a lot of strain on their marriage--I understood that but after a while I just wanted this depressing film to end. About the only bright spot was the role played by Claude Rains--he was pretty funny and likable. As for the leads, Anne Shirley and John Garfield, this was definitely not one of their better films as they came off as rather whiny and immature. I just felt like yelling at the actors to buck up and deal with it--that's life!

Draconis Blackthorne A charming and rather riveting tale about a newlywed couple who struggle through some financial hardships, yet their incessant love for each other wins out in the end, and the money naturally follows such passion. They meet on a bus of all places, where they are immediately attracted towards one another, and allow themselves various "coincidences" to meet up again on the street - he is an inventor of such quirky gadgets like the door lock which engages like a safe, and an instant cigarette-rolling apparatus. After a rough argument, the two temporarily part ways, and through a supremely noble sacrifice by a relative, rejoin their inevitable love. He subsequently rejects a gig in The Phillipines for their union, and all finally balances out.